Baggett benches himself over COVID risk
Tabb’s long-serving coach decides to step back to prevent transmitting virus to 89-year-old parents
For almost four decades, Doug Baggett preached to Tabb High’s boys basketball players about the value of self-sacrifice for the greater good. This season, painfully, he will practice it.
Baggett, whose 36 seasons make him the longest-tenured active boys basketball coach in Hampton Roads, will step aside for this year to diminish his risk of catching COVID-19. You can’t fault his intentions.
Baggett visits his parents, Ernestine and John Baggett, both 89, weekly to deliver groceries, cut the grass and perform other chores at their Suffolk home. As the couple approaches their 70th anniversary, Baggett cannot in good conscience increase their chances of contracting the coronavirus by being around so many others in a gymnasium on a daily basis.
“I’m going to miss basketball, for sure, but I don’t think I’ll miss all of the uncertainty we have right now about whether or not there will be a season,” said Baggett, who has guided the Tigers to nine state tournament appearances. “Either way, I’m just not going to put my parents at risk.”
So, Tommy Sweeney, Baggett’s assistant and Tabb’s junior varsity coach for 18 years, will take over the varsity squad for a season.
“I’ve been with Doug for so long, I know what he expects and I think everything will go fine,” Sweeney said. “I’m glad to help Doug.”
Baggett, who retired several years ago as a teacher, says that he would’ve understood if Tabb had sought to replace him as coach and originally offered to resign. Tabb athletic director Clark Ward convinced him to come back next year.
“Doug Baggett has just been too important to Tabb to go out this way,” Ward said. “I want him to go out on his own terms.
“Tommy (Sweeney) knows all of the kids so we shouldn’t lose any progress.”
Should Baggett feel the environment is safe enough for him to return next season, he can build on a considerable legacy. With five or so victories he will surpass 600 as a boys basketball coach.
Combined with his 397 baseball wins, that would put him over 1,000 as a boys coach. A girls basketball coach at York for three seasons before coming to Tabb, Baggett already has more than 1,000 varsity wins.
“The 1,000 boys wins would be nice, but it’s not why I will be coming back,” he said. “We have three players who were sophomores for me last year, and I would like to come back and coach them. Maybe that will be my last year.”